I’ve been itching for a new computer for years. I’ve been playing Starcraft on my work issued laptop, which is really not very good (it lags even on all the low settings). When I found out I wasn’t going to receive a new laptop from work, I decided it was time to buy a desktop. This led to a bit of a kerfluffle with Mrs. cmfl3x, compounded by this: Two days after I ordered the computer, work announced that we would be receiving new laptops! Two computers for the price of one! YAY!

This is what Starcraft II looks like?
The first thing I did when I got my new PC computer was to play Starcraft II (obviously). With the new computer and graphics card, I can turn all the settings up to ultra. It looks amazing! I seriously thought I was playing a different video game. Roaches dissolve into some sort of acidic goo when they die. Buildings pulsate and whirr with action when they are being used. My cinematics no longer lag. I love it!

Steam Powered
The best thing about having two new computers? I can finally use Steam. My old work Macbook could barely run it. I am ADDICTED. First I installed Portal which I got for free way back when. Then I bought 4 copies of L4D2 on Steam sale and distributed them to friends. Then I picked up Civilization V which I could play on Mac as well.

It’s crazy! The Steam sales are bad news – something goes on sale every single day! So tempting. I’ve considered picking up games I’ve never even heard of just because they are on sale. It’s definitely bad news. The other nice thing is the new Macbook I got from work can run these games too. So any cross platform games I can play on either computer. Yay!

The Fallout
Unfortunately, there is one major drawback to the new computer(s). Mrs. cmfl3x is none too happy. Here’s a pro tip: Make sure you ask permission before you buy a new computer. Mrs. cmfl3x was none too pleased. It didn’t help that my answer to the query, “What do we need a new computer for?” was “Taxes…….YouTube….” Pro tip 2: Come up with a better excuse. Haha.

Luckily, Mrs. cmfl3x is a wonderful wife and very forgiving, so she’s mostly over it now. She even found a silver lining – when I am using the computer the TV is off so she can do what she needs to do without being distracted. I should have thought of that as one of my reasons in the first place! Woops. I’ve been super nice since the computers came, which I’ll probably need to keep up for the rest of the summer to make up for it. Worth it!

I never thought it would happen, but I finally have started to tire a bit of Starcraft II. I think it’s because I’m not getting any better, and my computer sucks so bad that it’s started to get frustrating (in combination with not getting any better). I did, however, find an interesting little mod called Star Battle. It’s kind of like DOTA, but it’s in space – and is an interesting enough departure from the regular game that I think it’s worth checking out.

The premise of Star Battle is pretty simple. It’s 6v6, and each player controls one capital ship. There are different capital ships that you can choose (6 in total), each ship has different powers. Some are designed for attacking, some are designed to support, and some are balanced. Your goal is to destroy all enemy capital ships or the three floating structures that make up each team’s base on opposing sides of the map.

Each base sends out small ships (creeps essentially) that you can kill to mine minerals. Minerals are used to upgrade your ship and to buy special powers. One important upgrade is speed, otherwise you can get caught out. You can also upgrade your ship weapons and every ship can learn a warp ability that allows them to warp to other ships.

One major difference between Star Battle and DOTA is permanent death. That really changes your strategy, because if you die then you’re just watching (most people just leave). That means teamwork is important – live together, die alone.

I’d love there to be matchmaking for this game, but that probably wouldn’t happen. Also, there are some things that make it inferior to DOTA. First of all, there aren’t as many ships to choose from, so that’s kind of boring. Secondly, the creep is small and hard to see, that detracts from the experience as well. I also think 6v6 is a lot – it’s tough to get that many friends to play together with, and if you don’t have good teamwork it’s easy to lose quickly. That being said, Star Battle is a lot of fun and a good diversion from regular SC2 play. It’s a bit of a learning curve (which I haven’t finished yet), but if you like Starcraft and DOTA, check it out!

Aside from Starcraft II, espion4ge and I had pretty different lists of anticipated games for 2010. As espion4ge pointed out on Monday, a lot of his picks turned out to be busts. My list fared a little bit better – hit the jump to see why.

Mass Effect 2 was so close to game of the year for 2010 – soon PS3 owners can see why!

Mass Effect 2
This game was pretty awesome. Even though the story didn’t live up to the first, I loved the new characters and I thought the gameplay was greatly improved. I’ve purchased a couple of the DLC packs and hope to play through the game again early next year (as FemShep) – moreover, I’m even tempted to buy the PS3 version! If Starcraft II hadn’t come out, Mass Effect 2 might very well have been my game of the year. Worth the hype.

The Investigations game was popular enough to warrant a sequel.

Ace Attorney Investigations: Miles Edgeworth (DS)
As a huge fan of the Phoenix Wright series, I was curious what a game with Edgeworth at the helm might feel like. This game was a bit of a departure, abandoning the courtroom for a more adventure game style that ended up working out great. They’ve already announced a sequel, so I’m looking forward to it. But when are we going to continue the Phoenix Wright saga? Where is Maya!? Questions that need to be answered!

Conviction was a bit different than what people were expecting, but still enjoyable.

Splinter Cell: Conviction
This probably was the weakest of the games I was anticipating, but I still enjoyed it quite a bit. Actually, I don’t remember too much about it though, so I guess it could kind of be labeled a bust. I did have a lot of fun playing it, but I also traded it in pretty quickly. I guess I was thirsting for something akin to Metal Gear on the Xbox, but the Splinter Cell series doesn’t live up. Still, I thought the innovations were pretty cool, so it wasn’t a total bust.

Heavy Rain is perhaps the best PS3 exclusive game released in 2010.

Heavy Rain
Despite a billion plot holes, Heavy Rain’s story was pretty good and the merging of gameplay and context was stellar. It’s really impressive that Quantic Dream took what basically amounts to quick time events and turned it into a game that made you feel like you were really in control of your characters. The cinematography was top notch as well and made the game feel like you were watching a movie. I could have done without the terrible accents though. Jay-son!

If you haven’t bought Starcraft II yet, you’re missing out on the year’s top game.

Starcraft II
Not much I need to say about this game, except for the fact that I’m trying to finish up this post so I can go play it. Game of the Year!

Even if you’re not a Western fan, Red Dead Redemption should not be missed.

2010 Surprises and Favorites
Red Dead Redemption probably tops my list of surprises, but that’s because I expected so little out of it. Mostly I only bought the games I was anticipating this year and they all turned out to be pretty fun. I think DJ Hero 2 deserves mentioning, it’s probably the best music game nobody is playing. Also, I hope to check out Kinect sometime soon, though I’m pretty sure I’d never buy one. Frankly, I’m a bit disappointed by the insistence of game companies to make things more casual-friendly, but I guess that’s just the way things are going. I don’t like it, but I don’t have to buy those games either, so I guess it’s okay.

Hope all of you had a great Christmas weekend! So we’ve made it once again to the end of another year, and cmfl3x and I decided to recap our 5 most anticipated titles for 2010 since we’re getting ready to share our top 2011 titles for 2011. Hit the jump to see the games I was most looking forward to in 2010 at the beginning of this year and my thoughts how they eventually ended up.

The entire Final Fantasy XIII game sometimes felt like one long battle screen.

Final Fantasy XIII
I hate to say it, but Final Fantasy XIII was the biggest disappointment of the year for me. Sure there were plenty of mediocre games released this year, but the thing about Final Fantasy was that I expected it to be good. Conversely, I didn’t have high expectations for games like Crackdown 2 and Lost Planet 2 – sequels to titles that I didn’t think were so hot in the first place. But Final Fantasy XIII? I have literally grown up with this series, starting with the original game on the NES all the way until now. Before this year, I would have considered Final Fantasy XIII to be a lock for one of the top games of the year, but how could a Japanese RPG company as large as Square Enix mess up on all of the aspects that make Japanese RPG games so enjoyable? Freedom to roam and do sidequests? Not until after you beat it. Ability to customize your party? Maybe 20-30 hours in after you get past the first half of the game that was the tutorial. A captivating story with interesting characters? I guess that ship has set sail on the Final Fantasy franchise since Final Fantasy X. So what’s left for this game? A 50-hour linear hallway in which you spend most of your time in combat. I’m surprised that the Japanese 360 version just released has an “easy mode”. I thought the entire game was already “easy mode”! Square Enix has to do something with its Final Fantasy franchise – the combination of both Final Fantasy XIII and Final Fantasy XIV both turning out mediocre can’t be a good sign for the series.

Resonance of Fate may be the J-RPG of the year, but was overshadowed by Final Fantasy XIII.

Resonance of Fate
Whose idea at Sega was it to release Resonance of Fate, a Japanese RPG, one week directly behind Final Fantasy XIII, the biggest Japanese RPG of the year? Fire that guy. I never got a chance to play Resonance of Fate for that very reason – I was too “burnt out” on J-RPGs on the console after the dozens of hours I sunk into Final Fantasy XIII, but I will go back for this one. After all, it’s still sitting in shrinkwrap on my shelf still and what I am probably considering this year’s best J-RPG game. Why did I anticipate this game so much? 3 factors: a Japanese RPG (you can tell, I’m a fan right?) developed by tri-Ace (the studio behind such J-RPGs as Star Ocean and Infinite Undiscovery – a J-RPG I actually enjoyed a lot), set in the future revolving around guns. The last J-RPG game I played that made use of guns in the present/future was Parasite Eve. So, it is a winning combination all around for fans of the genre like myself. Unfortunately, with its length, it’s sitting at the very end of my backlog queue as I try to clear through shorter games for the moment.

Starcraft II’s campaign was also highly entertaining and innovative.

Starcraft II
If you’ve been following our 2010 awards/holiday guide, you probably saw how many awards Starcraft II won at Leveling Down (including our 2010 Game of the Year), so it wasn’t too difficult a call to make on this one. The game turned out as fantastic as we’ve come to expect for a game from Blizzard, and this was the only game that both cmfl3x and I listed in our respective 2010 “most anticipated” lists. Neither of us were let down, and have probably each put in over a couple hundred hours since the game has launched this past summer. I find myself having very left to say about the game due to the amount of gushing I did in our awards already!

There is still hope for Elemental – I’ll probably check it out in 2011 when it’s stable and good.

Elemental: War of Magic
Sadly, like Final Fantasy XIII, I was let down by Elemental: War of Magic. After how much time I enjoyed playing Stardock’s Galactic Civilizations II, I thought it was an easy lock for Stardock to bring their 4X strategy gameplay to the fantasy world of Elemental. It sounded so good: a strategy game with RPG elements, questing, treasures, diplomacy, and warfare – this was going to be the game to take over my life when it released and I was ready! Sadly, it was a bust. The game turned out to be very buggy, the gameplay a mess, features missing, etc. My primary suspicion is that the developers decided to try to push the game out the door as soon as they could so they wouldn’t have to release it after Civilization V – its main competitor. Well, unfortunately, the game got destroyed by reviews and word of mouth, and Stardock is now trying to regenerate good will letting everyone know that they are going back to the drawing board and fixing all sorts of gameplay issues – such as actually including a tutorial. Considering how polished Galactic Civilizations II ended up, I have hope that Elemental will eventually also become good. But for now, I guess I’ll just play Civilization V.

I didn’t know it was possible for a modern shooter to score so low. Congrats, Medal of Honor!

Medal of Honor
Before Call of Duty 4 hit the world, Infinity Ward claimed that they wanted to give Halo multiplayer a run for its money. That sounded like a very lofty ambition at the time, but Call of Duty 4 did eventually prove itself to be a ridiculously competitive game with Halo 3, knocking it off the top spot many a time among Xbox 360 gamers’ most played game each week. So without knowing much of what was going to be released this year, I went with Medal of Honor, as EA had decided that they wanted to try to beat Call of Duty. Hey, if Call of Duty can beat Halo, I am open-minded about the idea of another franchise being able to beat Call of Duty. Unfortunately, Medal of Honor not only failed to beat Call of Duty, but it probably sent the franchise back to the grave. I’ll probably end up checking it out once I can get it for cheap just for my own curiosity.

Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker really felt like the next game in the stellar franchise.

2010 Surprises & Favorites
Three of the five games I was most looking forward to this year ended up as busts. Talk about bad picks. Who would have thought with the pedigree of studios behind the classic Final Fantasy games, Galactic Civilizations II, and the Battlefield franchises could put out games that ended up under-delivering? Well, fortunately, there were some bright, unexpected titles I got to play that I loved more than I would have ever thought. The biggest surprise for me was Mass Effect 2. After not really loving the first one, I didn’t expect the second one to be a game I would care much for but it was a total pleasant surprise. I also picked up a PSP for the first time just to play Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker – and it was totally worth it. If I were to set the record again for my favorite titles of 2010 (in no particular order), they’d be:

Bayonetta
Mass Effect 2
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty
Metal Gear Solid: Peace Walker

Hopefully my anticipated titles for 2011 fare a bit better!

It all boils down to this: our game of the year for 2010. cmfl3x and I had some discussion over the various games we decided to nominate for game of the year this year, so have a look and see what we have to say. Keep in mind that all games on this list are worth playing, but if you can only play one…look no further than our game of the year.

Nominees for Game of the Year 2010

Bayonetta

espion4ge: I’m slightly sad that cmfl3x never got into Bayonetta like I did, so it’s been all me pushing for Bayonetta in the various award categories as well as getting it an entry here in one of this year’s top games. By now, all of you have probably read how much I have gushed over Bayonetta – and it’s for what I would call good reason: it is probably the best action/adventure game ever made. Of course, this is going to be debatable, since its storyline simply cannot compare to games like God of War, but for me, most games come down to the gameplay and Bayonetta was an adrenaline rush from start to finish. You know an action game is good when you can sit and play through it multiple times in a row and still have so much fun. I think the only reason I stopped playing the game was that I beat it on its hardest difficulty so there wasn’t much left for me to do!

What I love most about Bayonetta is the combination of the sultry heroine and the feeling of being a total badass once you get the combat system. Then you can feel almost like an artist as you traverse the screen tearing apart bad guys and getting graded accordingly for it. If you enjoy action/adventure games – do not miss this game.

Mass Effect 2

cmfl3x: I don’t have much to say about Bayonetta, but I didn’t get to write about Mass Effect 2 and I just want to say I LOVED it. As espion4ge mentioned, Mass Effect 2 improved a lot of the shortcomings in the original. What I love about Mass Effect 2 is that your choices from the first game are persistent – I really felt like they had an effect on the Mass Effect world. Moreover, Mass Effect 2 introduced a lot of new cool characters, and almost (almost) introduced an acceptable Wrex substitute. The gameplay improved a lot as well. I love Bioware’s dialogue trees, and Mass Effect 2 is a worthy successor to one of my favorite games of all time.

espion4ge: Mass Effect 2 is my runner-up for game of the year in 2010. BioWare has really turned the Mass Effect series into something quite amazing with the sequel. It improves many aspects of the original game, making for quite an enjoyable game from a gameplay standpoint. It comfortably walks the thin line between RPG and shooter, allowing for fans of both genres to have fun. It weaves an interesting storyline that actually continues choices you made in the original game by checking your save game file. The last time I saw something even remotely similar to this was in the orignal Metal Gear Solid game where Psycho Mantis was telling me I liked to play Castlevania and Suikoden (two other Konami games). Mass Effect 2 deserves all of the accolades it has won, and I highly encourage anyone even remotely interested in the game to check it out.

Heavy Rain

espion4ge: As a new PS3 owner this year, Heavy Rain was the top PS3 title of the year that I wanted to play. Of course, with my brother and cmfl3x both already having played through the game and loving it, I instead decided to devote my time towards other games to write about for you readers. I hear nothing but good things about the game, and it looks to be a very unique experience that the Xbox 360 has not yet been able to provide. Hopefully I get around to it in the coming months, but for now, I’ll let cmfl3x do the gushing on this one.

cmfl3x: The best thing about Heavy Rain is that it takes risks for video games in general. It has a radical control scheme (basically everything is a quick time event), and its emphasis on story really makes gamers feel like their decisions have weight. It’s probably a good argument in the “are games art?” debate, but I don’t usually mess around with those deliberations. The thing I loved most about Heavy Rain is that I really wanted to see how the story played out AND I also felt like I had a huge role to play in the story. When you are “fighting” bad guys, it’s nerve wracking – make the wrong move and your character might die. It’s tough to explain, but I really felt more involved in Heavy Rain than I do in other games. I think every PS3 owner should at least rent it to feel how different it is – it is truly a unique game in a sea of copycats.

Halo: Reach

cmfl3x: The next game on our list is Halo: Reach. Of course, the last Bungie developed Halo title needed to be on the list, so it’s a good thing that Reach is one of the best. Although I miss the openness of ODST, I did enjoy the story in Reach and I thought the multiplayer tweaks were good as well. Reach was the game that finally made espion4ge a believer in the Halo series, so I’ll let him finish up.

espion4ge: While Halo: Reach is not what I would consider innovative as it has built on previous Halo titles, it is what I call THE “definitive” Halo experience. In the box, Reach provides a decent campaign, several co-op options through the Campaign and Firefight modes, multiplayer, and an experience point system that ties all of the modes together into your single Halo: Reach profile. If you like Halo, you already have Halo: Reach, and if you don’t have it yet but are considering it – you won’t be disappointed. It’s the series that saved the Xbox and is probably responsible for the Xbox 360 today!

Call of Duty: Black Ops

espion4ge: Treyarch has come a long way with its share of Call of Duty games, and Black Ops is the studio’s best game – netting it a spot on this list of top games of the year. Like its competitor, Halo: Reach, it provides a full package of an interesting campaign, co-op zombies, and a full-fledged multiplayer. While the Call of Duty series is starting to get a bit worn out, Black Ops carries the torch well and will keep Call of Duty fans busy until next year’s game.

cmfl3x: I don’t have much to add to what espion4ge said, except that I am still playing Black Ops now, so that’s pretty high praise. It’s Call of Duty. What else is there to say?

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]

espion4ge: If you’ve been following our 2010 awards since the beginning, you’ll probably note how many awards Starcraft II took this year. It will also take our final award as the game of the year for 2010. While the game is not perfect (lack of chatrooms, clan support, LAN support, replay rooms, etc.) the whole package is a game that is worth far more than its asking price. Consider what you get in the box for Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty:

1. a campaign that is dozens of hours long, innovative, interesting, and enjoyable.
2. various non-campaign related single-player modes such as skill-based tests, matches against the AI or even partnered up with the AI, etc.
3. a full fledged multiplayer with 1v1 through 4v4 support with automated matchmaking, ladder rankings, and custom game types.
4. An achievement system that awards achievements for playing everything the game has to offer, with point scores, gamer icon unlockables, etc.

What Blizzard has done is not just create a game in Starcraft II, but an entire system for it. And guess what? For what it is nowadays, it could easy be worth a monthly fee, as it gives so much and executes so well. It’s not perfect, but it’s perfect in all the areas that count. Starcraft fans have been waiting many years for a proper sequel, and Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty has been delivered with flying colors. Through the course of these awards, I’ve already got Starcraft II on my mind again and find myself itching to play whenever I think about it. That is the mark of a good game – and our game of the year.

cmfl3x: Oh man – I absolutely love Starcraft II. I want a new computer so I can play Starcraft II better. A friend of mine said that he gets an unhealthy adrenaline rush from playing the game. The great part about multiplayer is that you will always win 50% of your games. The matchmaking is well done, and that ensures that you’re never frustrated or never bored. I cannot wait for the Zerg campaign!

espion4ge: This wraps it up for 2010! Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty nearly sweeps the competition, winning practically every category it is nominated in. If you have yet to try this game out – the only excuse you can possibly have is that your computer cannot run it. So get a new computer – this game is so worth it!

We hope you had fun reading through our awards and shopping guide. Hopefully there are more terrific games in store for 2011!

Our Awards & Holiday Shopping Guide are just about done, but today I get to talk about some of my favorite categories. Which stories really stuck with me this year? What new IPs are out there that might stand the test of time? And how do all the sequels this year stack up? Hit the jump to find out!

Best Story

Mass Effect 2
Alan Wake
Heavy Rain
Red Dead Redemption [winner]
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
Fallout: New Vegas

I really enjoy the stories in games, and this year had a few good ones. Mass Effect 2 didn’t necessarily live up to the story of the original, but I still enjoyed the story a lot. Even though it was mostly about building up your squad, I found the back stories and personalities of each character very compelling. Mass Effect 2 isn’t the greatest story, but it’s still an enjoyable ride, and the last mission is a great payoff.

Alan Wake almost won this category, until we realized the ending was a bit cheesy. It’s too bad, because this story about a horror fiction in a creepy lake town had all the makings of a real winner. The ambiance, the twists and turns in the story, and the premise are all great. It’s just too bad the “twist” at the end is a little too cliche. Still, Alan Wake is a story worthy of Stephen King.

I loved Heavy Rain and was seriously considering picking it as the winner as well. Then I started thinking about it more, and realized that if this is the STORY category, Heavy Rain just has too many plot holes to win the category. It’s still a great story, but there is a website out there that points out all the plot holes (Google it if you’re interested). I really enjoyed searching for a serial killer and the dark story – it’s just…did I mention plot holes? As a game, though, the plot holes are kind of fun!

At first, Red Dead Redemption seemed like a long shot, but I eventually decided to give the game a try. I’m glad I did, and Red Dead Redemption ended up winning Leveling Down’s Best Story award. Red Dead Redemption is a great……redemption story, one with a cool main character, a unique old school western world, and a lot of fun side missions. GTA IV kind of wore on me at the end because Niko’s character rang hollow – I don’t feel the same way about John Marston. The story keeps you wanting more, and the ending really tugs at the heart strings.

My runner up in this category is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Red Dead Redemption is a deeper, more nuanced story. Enslaved is a summer blockbuster. The story is a fast and action packed ride that never stops. You are moving from locale to locale, set piece to set piece as the game just barrels on towards it’s conclusion. It’s a lot of fun: the popcorn flick of this year’s crop of video games.

Not surprisingly, Fallout: New Vegas rounds out the nominees in Best Story. Obsidian, the makers of the original Fallouts, did an amazing job with the story. They have taken all the great things in Fallout 3 but improved on the story. New Vegas involves a series of different warring factions and you have to decide where your loyalties will lie. It’s a lot of fun and feels a lot bigger and graver than Fallout 3′s story: that’s a great thing.

Best New IP

Bayonetta [winner - tie]
Darksiders
MAG
Heavy Rain
Alan Wake
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West [winner - tie]
Vanquish

It was actually kind of tough to come up with a winner in this category. As espion4ge has mentioned, 2010 kind of feels like the year of the sequel.

espion4ge chose Bayonetta as his winner in this category. He absolutely loved this game, and this is what he had to say about it:
When I think of the Best New IP category, I think of the game that I would like to see a sequel from moreso than any other. Since Bayonetta was my favorite action/adventure game of the year, I can’t imagine anyone being surprised that this is the game I would love to see a sequel from most. The game had what I considered perfect gameplay design, oozed a sexy style in its female protagonist and combat mechanics, and has set the new bar for action/adventure games. If other current action/adventure games matched the level of gameplay that Bayonetta provided, I wouldn’t be as zealous to play a new Bayonetta sequel. Unfortunately, I’ve yet to see anything out now or on the horizon that can provide this old-school hardcore gamer the thrills and highs that Bayonetta could. Even if the sequel has a storyline as non-coherent as the first, with the gameplay so good, I won’t even care. Now Platinum – please release a sequel!

Darksiders feels like a Zelda knock-off, but in a good way. The game feels like an homage to Zelda, but a worthy game in and of itself. Even though it feels like Zelda, the premise is very un-Zelda: in a post-apocalyptic world, you play as one of the four horsemen in the apocalypse. Instead of killing weird things that shoot rocks out of their mouths, you are killing angels and demons. Anyway, Darksiders is a lot of fun and a nice little new IP.

MAG (Massive Action Game) is a super ambitious first person shooter on the PS3 that almost lived up to the hype. It allows up to 256 players to duke it out in massive battles. More interestingly, there is a promotion system where you can work your way up from a grunt to a commander who oversees squads in battle. It takes unlockables in a new direction, and a sequel should be coming soon.

Now while the story was riddled with holes, Heavy Rain as a whole is an amazing new IP. Quantic Dream billed it as interactive drama, and it stands as one of the most unique games released this year. The control scheme makes a player really feel like a part of the action, and the different ways that the story can play out really make your decisions feel weighty and important. I doubt there will be a sequel (it wouldn’t make sense), but I’d love to see another game in this vein released.

Alan Wake is also a great new IP, and the story was continued through various DLC offerings. I’m pretty sure the series could still sustain a sequel, although there’s not much more for me to say that I didn’t say in Best Story.

My winner in this category is Enslaved: Odyssey to the West. Besides being a popcorn flick, this game is also a lot of fun. The gameplay is pretty simple to pick up, but deep enough not to get boring. It also takes place in a unique post-apocalyptic world, a completely different world than Darksiders. I really hope this game gets a sequel, but I don’t know if it has the niche following that Bayonetta does – my fingers are crossed!

Rounding out this category is Vanquish, a third person shooter that takes place in the future (but not post apocalyptic! Seriously, what is with the future!?) You have an awesome suit. You fight Russians. DARPA is involved. It’s kind of like Metal Gear Solid, minus sneaking and extended cut scenes but plus Gears of War type action. The game has kind of flown under the radar, but with mostly positive reviews, it’s worth a look.

Best Sequel

Mass Effect 2 [winner - tie]
BioShock 2
Dead Rising 2
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Civilization V
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner - tie]

To start things off, here’s espion4ge:
How does one decide on the best sequel for a game among this year’s so many sequels? I like to think of a Best Sequel as a sort of “Most Improved” award. What sequel among this list of nominees has considerably improved over its predecessor? While all the games in this category are good in their own way, some of them are arguably not better than their predecessor. Mass Effect 2 is a definite huge improvement over the first one. In my review of the first one years ago, I was actually not a huge fan of the game at all. The storyline was interesting, but the game itself was short, the scope of the world was tiny with mundane optional planets to drive around, and the Achievements were poorly designed (how many times am I supposed to go through this game?). Bioware listened to all of the negative feedback from the first game, and fixed every issue I had with the original game – making the sequel an amazing product. The game is lengthy now, the galaxy feels a lot more vast, there are new characters to recruit, and even the choices you made in the first game affect the sequel – something that I have not ever seen done before to this degree. In short, Mass Effect 2 is the best sequel of the year and I applaud the developers for learning from the first game.

People weren’t sure that Bioshock 2 should even have made, but in the end it turned out pretty well. Even though it couldn’t top the story of the original, subtle tweaks to the gameplay and plasmids along with a brand new protagonist AND antagonist combined to make a game that drew on all the great aspects of the first. Thus Bioshock 2 is a solid sequel, it isn’t a major improvement but it didn’t feel like a cheap cash in either.

Dead Rising 2, on the other hand, did feel a bit like a cash in. Ameliorating that feeling is the fact that the original came out like four years ago. Dead Rising 2 is one of those sequels that feels exactly like its predecessor, for better or worse. It’s still the same zombie killing fun you remember from Dead Rising, but it also contains a lot of the same glitches and bad design choices as well. It’s a game for fans of the original, but I’d personally recommend Case Zero.

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood, feels like a major expansion pack to Assassin’s Creed 2 – an awesome one. You get to gallivant through the one major city in Italy you missed, Rome, while advancing the story and setting things up for Assassin’s Creed 3. The combat has been streamlined for the better – one of the few things I didn’t like about Assassin’s Creed 2. More importantly, there is this awesome new guild of assassins that you can use to do your assassinations for you. How is that not a winner?

Of course, a list of best sequels wouldn’t be complete without the token Call of Duty game. Treyarch seems determined to get out of Infinity Ward’s shadow, and Call of Duty: Black Ops is their best Call of Duty game yet. With an interesting single player and a slower but more balanced feeling multiplayer, Black Ops is a solid entry in the series. I wish they could have included SpecOps, but with so much to do on one disc, it’s tough to complain.

As espion4ge pointed out elsewhere, if you are interested in jumping into a time machine and traveling 24 hours into the future without knowing where the time went, Civilization V is your best bet. The game has become more user-friendly and accessible and is still just as addicting. What that pretty much means is that you’ll get addicted faster. Civ V is THE turn based strategy game, and you could feasibly get by playing ONLY Civ V for the next year.

Speaking of games you can play for one year straight, my winner in this category is Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. Although it feels a lot like the original, Blizzard has made a lot of tweaks for a better experience. The interface has become easier to use with “smart” groups, making the gameplay more accessible and less frustrating. The addition of the Wing Commander-esque navigation menus between missions is a lot of fun, and the story is great and ends on a nice cliffhanger. The only thing bad I have to say about Starcraft 2 is that it gets me in trouble with my wife. It’s difficult for me to pay attention to her when my allies are in combat!

As someone that is a big fan of gaming in all of these categories, I’ll be presenting the best shooter games, games with the best gameplay, and the most addictive games of this year. See if you can guess the winners before the jump!

Best Shooter of 2010

MAG
BioShock 2
Halo: Reach [winner]
Medal of Honor
Vanquish
Call of Duty: Black Ops

MAG was the first major shooter released this year as a PS3 exclusive, and came from Zipper Interactive, the team behind the Sony exclusive franchise: Socom. The primary unique differentiator between MAG and other FPS games is its 256 player matches. While traditional multiplayer shooter games are 4 on 4 to 8 on 8, 128 on 128 completely blows it out of the water. Unfortunately, the sheer scope of the game highly encourages team play and objectives – something that gamers seem to have a hard time grasping these days. Combine that with the fact that once you pick one of the three factions in the game and you’re stuck with them for the rest of your MAG career and we can see why MAG didn’t quite live up to its hype. But, if this does sound interesting for you as a PS3 gamer, consider checking it out.

Shortly after MAG was released, BioShock 2 made its way to the masses. I was a huge fan of BioShock 1, picking it as my Game of the Year in 2007 over Call of Duty 4. It was basically a perfect game with a fitting end. Yet, most likely because the statistics showed far more people having played BioShock than the number of sales, Take 2 decided to put together a sequel with multiplayer in the hopes that more people would hold on to their copies of the game. Unfortunately, while the core BioShock 2 campaign is enjoyable and brings more BioShock gameplay for those that couldn’t get enough of the first, its multiplayer and even its relevance aren’t quite good. If you want more BioShock, definitely give BioShock 2 a look since it’s only $20 now and is a lengthy adventure. But is it necessary? Definitely not.

Halo games traditionally launch in the Fall and mark the beginning of the holiday season. Halo: Reach was no exception, and unlike Halo: ODST last year, Halo: Reach delivers the most engrossing experience for a Halo game to date: a campaign, Firefight, and multiplayer. While its campaign is a bit weaker than previous iterations of the game, as a whole – Halo: Reach is the pinnacle of the Halo series to date. Of course, the game is not an overhaul as much as it is a refinement of the series, so for those that never enjoyed Halo or have gotten sick of traditional Halo gameplay – you may want to avoid this one. But even with me as a Halo “non-fan”, I can appreciate the amount of effort Bungie put into their last Halo game – and the game rightfully deserves the place of Best Shooter of the year.

Medal of Honor is EA’s reboot of the franchise, and while it isn’t quite good enough for cmfl3x or I to have picked it up just yet, it can be enjoyable for the right type of shooter fan. First off – the game’s campaign is decent and seems to be getting praise. It’s the multiplayer that seems to really alienate the shooter user base. First off, keep in mind that the Medal of Honor multiplayer is not by the same team that did the campaign – it’s by DICE, the team behind the Battlefield and Battlefield: Bad Company games. DICE was riding high off of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and its strong team-based gameplay, but they decided to make Medal of Honor’s multiplayer a hybrid of Battlefield and Call of Duty style mechanics. This worked out to displease strong fans of both Battlefield: Bad Company 2 and Modern Warfare 2, but for some the combination was actually quite enjoyable.

It’s very rare for a non-Western shooter to be good, but it seems like many gamers besides me love Vanquish. Vanquish is a unique shooter that straps the player into a jetpack-like device, allowing you to slide, dodge, and slow down time as you run and gun your way through the game. The gameplay never seemed that amazing to me, and combined with its short 5 hour length was enough for me to hold off on buying it for now. But, critics and fans seem to really dig it – so here’s a game that I didn’t really think was too hot but I’ll probably check it out when I can get it cheaper.

The final, and biggest shooter of the year comes out last: Call of Duty: Black Ops. In this four year since the Call of Duty series rose to prominent fame, we have another Call of Duty game that does do nearly everything right to satisfy the shooter fan: an interesting and engaging campaign, co-op through an infinite zombie mode, and a more balanced and refined multiplayer experience. The biggest negatives going for it though are that it’s the 4th Call of Duty game in as many years in a row, and it doesn’t quite deliver as an overall package compared to last year’s Modern Warfare 2. But for those that still can’t get enough Call of Duty, Black Ops delivers and is only slightly bested by Halo: Reach this year in the shooter category.

Best Gameplay of 2010

Bayonetta
Super Street Fighter IV
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]
Civilization V

As a hardcore gamer, gameplay is the most important feature a game can provide for me. Each of these games I am about to describe are simply at the pinnacle of gameplay for their respective genres through a proper combination of input, feedback, challenge, skill, and enjoyment. For a game to even be considered on this list, it follows a very important requirement: easy to learn, hard to master.

Bayonetta is the pinnacle of action/adventure gameplay design, and something that I hope Western developers will eventually get to understand. The feel of combo-ing several enemies in a room, watching your rating go up, performing finishing moves with over-the-top theatrics, slowing down time as you dodge attacks and counter opponents into oblivion all require a certain amount of skill to pull off. You can’t just hit one button over and over again like Western action/adventure games, and one thing that Japanese action/adventure gameplay design has over Western action/adventure gameplay design is that you personally feel like the badass, not the weapon you are holding. For games like Bayonetta – the weapon is irrelevant as you could be wielding a toothpick and still kick butt. Bayonetta can be so daunting, but when you get it, you don’t wish for the game to ever end.

The Street Fighter games have come long way. Even with the move towards more complicated gameplay elements in games like Street Fighter III and Capcom vs. SNK, Street Fighter IV (and Super Street Fighter IV as a result) brings the gameplay back to its roots. The gameplay is not overwhelming enough that it turns away less hardcore fighting game fans, yet is not underwhelming or imbalanced enough to drive away the more hardcore fighting game fans. In short, it may very well be the fighting game with the most perfect gameplay design – making it sit right here among this year’s nominees. Of course, it’s a bit cheating to consider Super Street Fighter IV as a game of this year, as it is more an expansion to last year’s Street Fighter IV so it gets some points deducted when considered for the winner of this category. But, with the amount of content put into the game, it is worth every penny.

So far on this list, we have a nominee that is the pinnacle of action/adventure gameplay design, and another that is the pinnacle of fighting gameplay design. It should be of no surprise to anyone then to see Starcraft II weighing in as the pinnacle of real time strategy gameplay design, and winning the category altogether. Starcraft I was released over 10 years ago, was perfectly designed, and became a sport in Korea with several TV channels dedicated to the game. What other game has people clicking everyone as fast and as much as they can in order to raise their average APM (actions per minute) in order to become better Starcraft players? Starcraft II’s gameplay had a lot to live up to and did not disappoint. Starcraft II has taken gameplay from Starcraft 1, added in innovative new units, buildings, and gameplay elements, all while still preserving the Starcraft look, feel, and balance. Like Street Fighter, Starcraft II is played very competitively, but can be enjoyed on so many levels. Starcraft II is the most entertaining game released this year to simply spectate – I can watch replays of matches for entire days and not miss a beat. It’s this level of gameplay that makes it worthy of winning the Best Gameplay award of the year.

While the gameplay of Super Street Fighter IV and Starcraft II have elevated both games to international competition, Civilization V makes the list of nominees for Best Gameplay purely due to how well it plays for a turn-based strategy game. Every new Civilization game is met with great fervor and acclaim for good reason: they are remarkably designed. Save for the arguably iffy AI, Civilization V introduces several new gameplay elements to the series such as the switch to hexagonal grids allowing for six sides of attack, and the removal of the ability to stack units on the same tile. These major gameplay changes combined with the Civilization polish have strategists learning the game all over again and enjoying every minute of it.

Most Addictive of 2010

Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]
Halo: Reach
Civilization V
Call of Duty: Black Ops
World of Warcraft: Cataclysm

What a surprise: Starcraft II wins another category on this year’s 2010 list. This time around, cmfl3x and I both easily voted for Starcraft II as this year’s most addicting game. (I think I’ve logged over 200 hours into the game myself.) There are a combination of features in Starcraft II that make it so addicting. The first off is that its gameplay is just so well designed that you want to keep playing it. The beginning to the end of a game of Starcraft II is so much fun to play that you’re ready to play another one right behind it. On top of this, Blizzard has set up matchmaking and leagues for levels of play, enabling all players to get competitively matched with players of their own skill level – making each game quite thrilling and interesting. The final “nail” on the coffin that can suck you in for Starcraft 2 are the Achievements and Portrait unlocks. Starcraft II has a huge Achievement point system just like the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, drawing players in to do various things in both the single player and multiplayer game to increase their Achievement score. Then there’s the portrait unlocks that you also get for completing various challenges in the game online and offline, as well as wins in particularly multiplayer modes. Just the gameplay would have been enough for the game to be considered among this year’s most addictive, but everything else just brings it to the top.

I speak from firsthand experience when I say that Halo: Reach is addictive. After all, I’m not even a Halo fan but I just kept playing it. The reason? Challenges. Halo: Reach’s tiny addition of Daily and Weekly Challenges and a revised leveling system that takes into account cP gained from all modes of play as well as Challenges completed had me like a dog jumping through hoops to acquire those delicious Challenge bonus cP. The Challenge system opened up the game for me, persuading me to try new modes or things I would generally skip over otherwise. But yes – I will admit that without the new cP leveling system and Daily/Weekly Challenges, I would have stopped playing the game much sooner than I did.

A Civilization game being nominated in an “addictive” category is about as surprising as a McDonald’s serving french fries. Unlike the other games in this category, Civilization V is one game where if you are not watching the time, you could miss out on sleep entirely. It’s not hard to see why a game that allows you to build up and empire and rule the world can be considered addicting. The biggest problem about the game is the whole “one more turn” desire. When do you stop playing? After you sit for several minutes analyzing the current landscape to make a move but quit so that you don’t get to see what happens as a result of the move you planned to make? Or how about after you’ve made a move, and then you see all of the other nations responding to your move. Do you quit then without getting to react? How can you quit this game at all?!

While Call of Duty: Black Ops is not as addictive as last year’s Modern Warfare 2, it still follows the new Call of Duty formula of playing online, earning points for killing opponents or completing challenges, and then leveling up to unlock new items and gear. The concept of playing an enjoyable game to unlock more stuff is always going keep people addicted, and Call of Duty: Black Ops has enough of this going on to land itself in this year’s nominee list. Unfortunately, it may be among the least addictive games in the Call of Duty series, either due to features lacking compared to last year’s Modern Warfare 2 or the fact that the series itself is just getting stale. I liked leveling up to unlock stuff 4 years ago – but why am I doing this again for the fourth year in a row?

One game that cmfl3x and I did not want to mention on this list but I feel like the list would not be kosher without it is the new World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm. I almost don’t want to consider the World of Warcraft game and its expansions in the gaming category, as the franchise is more like a drug than a game in how addicting it can become. Of course, many ex-World of Warcraft fans thought the original core game was fantastic and that these subsequent expansions have never been able to restore the glory of the primary game, but I don’t see how Cataclysm won’t be enough to hook in current World of Warcraft addicts. It’s hard to evaluate this game as it’s just throwing more content for the World of Warcraft player – who would already be addicted to the game should this expansion have never come out. Regardless, I highly recommend avoiding this expansion and the entire game if you want to actually see daylight and have some real world responsibilities but for those in the hole, might as well enjoy more content!

What do we have in store for you today? Best XBLA/PSN title, best music game, and best multiplayer game. Bet you’ll be surprised who wins that one!

Best XBLA/PSN Game of 2010

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom
Limbo [winner]
Comic Jumper
Super Meat Boy
Joe Danger

I have a soft spot for small, downloadable titles. For one thing, they’re cheap. But more importantly, they offer small, compact experiences that often end up feeling more valuable. Finally, I really love downloadable titles because their smaller budgets allow developers to get more creative and risky in their design. I thought this year was not as exciting as years past, but there still were some great titles released.

The Misadventures of P.B. Winterbottom is a puzzle platformer in the spirit of Braid. Like most downloadable titles, it has a great sense of style, it’s presentation as a silent film really sticks with the player. Like all puzzle platformers, the game has a great physics engine, and it’s based on a task anyone could love – gathering pies!

Like Misadventures, Limbo exhibits a strong sense of style and utilizes a black and white color scheme that is absolutely stunning. Limbo is a dark, kind of messed up game that will stick with you after the end. It’s a puzzle platformer as well, but is more timing and physics based. The result if you mess up a puzzle? A gruesome death. The game is fun, and the world created is amazing. Like most downloadable titles, the “story” takes a less is more approach – with great success.

Frankly, Comic Jumper was a bit of a disappointment after Twisted Pixel’s awesome game ‘Splosion Man. Comic Jumper is a good game, but mostly because of its funny dialogue and story. The gameplay ends up getting repetitive, but if you or someone you know likes a good laugh, Comic Jumper can fit the bill.

If you want to harken back to the good ol’ days of excruciatingly painful platformers, Super Meat Boy is the way to go. Each of the 200+ levels in the game only takes 15 seconds to finish – if you get everything right. In reality, you won’t finish every level, and some of them might take you an hour to complete. But if you get all the achievements in this game, you will feel AWESOME.

IGN has called Joe Danger the marriage of Excitebike and Trials HD. That is pretty high praise! It’s a motorcycle game where you perform various stunts – the premise is that you are an injured stuntman who needs to get back in the game by doing all your old stunts. The game is presented in a happy go lucky way that disguises how difficult it actually is. If you’re up for some stunt related challenges, Joe Danger is for you!

Best Music Game of 2010

Green Day: Rock Band

Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock

DJ Hero 2

Rock Band 3 [winner]
Dance Central (Xbox 360 Kinect)

If you’re not sick of music games yet, this was actually a pretty good year. Despite their financial troubles, Harmonix released another band specific game, Green Day: Rock Band. As a huge Green Day fan, I really enjoyed it. Basically, if you like Green Day, this is a no brainer.

Guitar Hero 378, better known as Guitar Hero: Warriors of Rock, is actually a very strong entry in the series. Guitar Hero has becoming more and more user friendly, having all songs unlocked from the start, allowing drop in/drop out, etc. The tracklist is pretty good, but make sure you check it out to determine whether the game is for you or not.

If you like more contemporary music, consider checking out DJ Hero 2. It’s tracklist is stellar, and the gameplay is pretty challenging. I’ve always been a fan of the DJ Hero series, and the sequel definitely makes a lot of improvements over the original. It’s too bad this game hasn’t made more traction amongst consumers, but it definitely fills a nice niche in the music genre.

The winner of this category, almost by default, is Rock Band 3. Harmonix has always been the main innovator in the music genre, and the ability to actually learn how to play an instrument is a big plus. Rock Band still is the gold standard for music games, and this year is no exception.

Dance Central wasn’t originally on the list, but I guess as a gift guide, it probably deserves to be on her. Kinect isn’t worth much in my eyes, but Dance Central has been enjoyed by a lot of people as a party game. Tycho at Penny Arcade said his wife even took his Kinect to a party. It’s basically a dance game, and it takes advantage of what Kinect does well – interpret gross motor movements. If you’re willing to shell out the $150 bucks for a Kinect, you could do worse than buying this as a gift.

Best Multiplayer Game of 2010

Halo: Reach
Super Street Fighter IV

Call of Duty: Black Ops
Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood
Starcraft II: Wings of Liberty [winner]

Bungie’s Microsoft swan song, Halo: Reach, might be the strongest entry in the series yet. The game even made a believer out of espion4ge. Reach takes the tried and true Halo formula with a few new twists, most notably the loadout system. Jetpacks and headshots are a pretty fun combination.

Super Street Fighter IV feels more like an expansion to the original than a brand new game, but with it’s new quarter matches and tournaments, it’s a bit more user friendly in the multiplayer experience. You probably already own this game if you are an avid fighting game fan, but still, the multiplayer is relatively lag free and it’s tough to find a better fighting game on the market right now. Plus, DeeJay. Not.

As this site has noted, Call of Duty: Black Ops, provides a more balanced and less crazy multiplayer experience than Modern Warfare. For people who felt MW2 was unbalanced, Black Ops provides a good alternative, plus there is the zombie mode for people who enjoy that sort of thing. It’s fun to play with friends, although you’ll unlock guns at a faster pace so it’s not as addictive leveling up wise. It’s Call of Duty, what else is there to be said?

Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood is the first Assassin’s Creed game to feature multiplayer. Unlike other games that are trying to force some sort of generic multiplayer into their game, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood provides an innovative thinking man’s game. Instead of the running and gunning that we are used to seeing in various multiplayer shooters these days, Assassin’s Creed: Brotherhood multiplayer is all about blending in with the computer crowd such that you can make your way to the player you are trying to assassinate without other players being able to tell you apart from the AI. It’s quite a fresh take, but whether a vibrant multiplayer community will be formed by gamers who have the patience these days to sit through slow methodical killing is yet to be seen.

Finally, the winner in this category is – you guessed it – Starcraft 2: Wings of Liberty. Was there any doubt? This is a game worth buying a new computer for. Addictive gameplay? Check. Achievements? Check. Continual support from Blizzard via patches? Check. Zerglings? Check. Banelings, banelings, banelings, ohhhh? CHECK PLUS. True story, someone asked me to play Starcraft 2 today, five months after the game released. I’m logging back in after I finish this post – that’s longevity.

cmfl3x’s article this week had me thinking more about computer gaming lately. Not so long ago, I felt that a lot of game companies decided that they wanted to move towards the console market due to the inherent piracy involved with computer gaming. Yet today, computer gaming is stronger than ever. I’d love to use the term PC gaming instead of computer gaming, but the truth of the matter is, companies like Valve and Blizzard have really been supporting Mac gaming.

The current gaming landscape on the computer is strong enough that I could take a vacation from both my 360 and PS3 and still be quite entertained. Hit the jump for what I consider the games that are keeping computer gaming still relevant in this supposed “console age”.

Starcraft 2
Considering how many articles cmfl3x and I have put out on Leveling Down these past few months, it should come as no surprise how big a game Starcraft 2 is. This was the game that actually got me to come back to spend more than an hour at a time gaming on my PC. The campaign is excellent, the multiplayer addicting, and it works on a variety of different computer specs for both PC and Mac. Blizzard has been supporting Mac for as long as I can remember, with their retail release discs being playable on both PC and Mac.

Starcraft 2 is the sequel to the best RTS of all time. Is it better than the first? Time will tell, but it’s easy to say that it is at least the best RTS out on the market today. With Blizzard releasing the Zerg and Protoss campaigns hopefully sooner rather than later, perhaps we may see new multiplayer units as well in these “expansions” – keeping the game relevant for years to come.

Civilization IV & V
Making big news these days is the recent release of Civilization V. Reviews have been favorable, and while the game isn’t as complete as the current Civilization IV and all its expansions, fans of the 4x strategy games can have fun with the newer Civilization V or the more polished Civilization IV. Sadly, only Civilization IV is available on Mac at this time, but V should release in the future.

If you love strategy games but find it difficult to compete in the real-time nature of Starcraft 2, consider either Civilization IV or V. I remember discovering the Civilization series with Civilization III several years ago. I would play that game and suddenly it would be time for bed. Those of you that have yet to try out Civilization, definitely check out either Civilization IV or V. Steam often puts the complete Civilization IV pack on sale for about $15, so look for that if you can’t afford Civilization V yet or can only game on a Mac.

Team Fortress 2
Team Fortress 2 is in such an interesting position for me. This is a game I own on both the 360 and the PC, yet the only experience I really have with the game is from earning all of the Achievements on the 360 version. From what I’ve read, there’s no comparison between the console version and the computer version of Team Fortress 2. While no changes have been made to the original release of the console version, the computer version continues to get support and free updates. These updates include new maps, class changes, new weapons, new gear, random drops, crafting, and most recently, the ability to actually buy items with real money. What Valve has done is taken the computer version of Team Fortress 2 and added all sorts of MMORPG elements to the game for an even more addicting experience while not charging players anything. Some may grumble at the new storefront that Valve has created for selling items, but the strongest argument in favor of this is that without a store, players would just end up selling their items on eBay anyway so might as well let Valve make the money instead of the players themselves.

The Mac version of Team Fortress 2 was just released, and Team Fortress 2 continues to go on sale very often at the Steam Store – sometimes $5 and sometimes $10. Even its $20 price tag is well worth the price. For those gamers that miss the days of PC FPS gaming where you actually connected to servers and got to know the players on a server, the computer version of Team Fortress 2 is what you should call home. Console FPS games and even the PC version of Modern Warfare 2 do not allow for dedicated servers, so consider looking into the computer version of Team Fortress 2 if you want to be more social in your FPS gaming.

Left 4 Dead 1 & 2
Left 4 Dead 1 and Left 4 Dead 2 both continue to get new campaigns and updates on both the 360 and PC. However, while you have to often pay for this DLC on the 360, it’s always free on the PC. Valve just released the Mac version of Left 4 Dead 2, and is planning to release the Mac version of Left 4 Dead 1 by this Halloween. With them both on sale this past week for a little over $10 together, each game is practically cheaper than the DLC that you have to pay for on the 360.

There is no other FPS series out there that relies on co-op as much as the Left 4 Dead games, and only the computer versions allow players to continue downloading all sorts of new maps for free courtesy of the map-making community. While the difference between the console and computer versions of the Left 4 Dead games isn’t as stark as the Team Fortress 2 comparison, if you enjoy getting new content for free and playing on new maps created by fans of the game, the computer version of this series is the way to go.

World of Warcraft
How could I write an article marveling at how strong computer gaming still is today without the behemoth that has always kept computer gaming relevant? World of Warcraft is the most popular MMORPG in the world, and for good reason: it’s very well designed, enjoyable for gamers of all types, does not require high-end computers, is playable on both PC and Mac, and continues to provide new content. The newest expansion, Cataclysm, is set to launch on December 7, and with the expansion going back to changing the original gameplay world, many ex-World of Warcraft players such as myself are intrigued.

Seriously – the only thing holding me back from jumping back into World of Warcraft these days is that I don’t think I could maintain a good “game and life” balance were I to start World of Warcraft again. Considering you don’t have to really ever play anything else if you start playing World of Warcraft, I feel that the only way I could probably play World of Warcraft again is if I somehow won the lottery and did not have to work any more. My day job would probably end up being to play World of Warcraft. The expansion looks great, and having played the game for a couple years, I have to say that it’s quite addictive. Too addictive is the problem, and it’s not a game I recommend if you want to have a life outside of gaming as well.

Computer Gaming Not Dead Yet
So there you have it – the best RTS game, the best MMORPG, the best 4x strategy games, the best co-op FPS series, and arguably the most addicting teamplay adversarial FPS game are all either only available on the computer or are better supported on the computer. With this heavy lineup of computer games still going strong, if you were interested in playing 1 or 2 of these games, how would you have time to even play games on the console?

Every few months forces conspire against me and I execute an “impulse buy.” Though these purchases aren’t always accompanied with a side of regret, they still happen more often than they should and usually for silly reasons. They also generally occur after 11 PM.

Forces, they do conspire. For one thing, Starcraft 2 absolutely refuses to promote me out of the Gold League in 3v3 RT. I’ve been playing so much that I’ve exhausted my bonus pool. Unbelievably frustrating (I’m winning more than I am losing for the record). Secondly, Halo Reach’s multiplayer hasn’t gripped me as much as I thought – although it has established a foothold, see below. While all this has been happening, the sirens of Civilization V have been calling my name but my lack of a good PC has served as my metaphorical earplugs. Since convincing my wife to buy me a new PC as a combined Christmas/birthday present is futile, it looks like I won’t be getting Civilization V for the foreseeable future.

So I did the next best thing: I downloaded Civilization IV to get my turn based strategy fix. The problem with the internet is that I just need to enter my credit card number and I’ll be out $20. Anyway, I am now a proud owner of Civilization IV, a four year old game. Of course, Montezuma and his Aztecs proceeded to destroy my civilization before we even reached the birth of Christ. I think I needed more Vespene Gas or something. Anyway, Civ IV is completely different from Starcraft, in a wonderful way. Civilization is like the anti-Starcraft, but it’s just as addicting. Here we go.

On the console side, I think I need a strategy for getting some more time in Reach’s multiplayer. There are some pretty cool Firefight and custom games that you can download via Bungie’s fileshare system, which really is a fine piece of work and a brilliant idea. I highly recommend that people check it out. Bungie’s customization and personalizing options are insane – you can play Halo any way you want to. It’s pretty awesome, I just wish I enjoyed the core game a bit more. But I think it definitely deserves more time than I’ve been giving it.

14 days until I enter New Vegas. Get your bottlecaps ready.